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Chapter 1: Introduction 國立交通大學 語言與文化研究所 碩 士 論 文 Reimagining Immigrant Women: Chinese American Mobility Discourses in Nieh Hualing and Yan Geling’s Writings 研 究 生：林怡君 指導教授：馮品佳 教授 中華民國九十三年七月 Reimagining Immigrant Women: Chinese American Mobility Discourses in Nieh Hualing and Yan Geling’s Writings 研 究 生：林怡君 Student: Yi-chun Lin 指導教授：馮品佳 Advisor: Pin-chia Feng 國立交通大學 語言與文化研究所 碩士論文 A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures Graduate Institute of Linguistics and Cultural Studies National Chiao Tung University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Art in Graduate Institute of Linguistics and Cultural Studies July 2004 Hsinchu, Taiwan, Republic of China 中華民國九十三年七月 關鍵字：移動、華裔移民、聶華苓、嚴歌苓、《桑青與桃紅》、《無出路咖啡館》、 <少女小漁>、<處女阿曼達>、黃秀玲 中文摘要 本文借用亞美研究學者黃秀玲（Sau-ling C. Wong）的雙向移動理論來探討 華裔移民女性之移動、抵拒男性宰制並建立起主體性的過程。此移動理論包含平 行的地理式移動與垂直的社經式移動。在聶華苓的《桑青與桃紅》中，女主角藉 著移動力量產生不同的空間意識，以抵抗宰制並建立新主體性。另一方面，嚴歌 苓故事中的華裔移民女性則較關切異國生存問題。在《無出路咖啡館》、<少女小 漁>、<處女阿曼達>裡，她們表現出對垂直式移動的矛盾感受，同時也抗拒著主 流文化的再現。此論文盼能藉華裔移民女性的異質經驗來豐富、活化華裔美國移 動論述。 全文共四章。第一章針對移動女性主體之構成做理論分述。其中，除回顧 華裔美國移動論述中女性的邊緣化地位之外，亦論述黃秀玲的雙向移動概念作為 理論基礎。此章中並借用鄭明河（Trin T. Minh-ha）的女性主義觀點來探究華裔 移民女性在原生結構與社會關係（filiation/affiliation）之間的主體性構成與抵拒。 第二章借用黃秀玲雙向移動論述中將移動視作可消融宰制論述之「競爭的 文化論述」（rival cultural discourse）來分析聶華苓《桑青與桃紅》中的平行移動。 由此，桑青與桃紅的平行移動可策略性突破宰制力量的限制。在移動中，桑青與 桃紅創造了不同於宰制力量的空間論述，也在過程裡產生強力的主體性。 第三章分析嚴歌苓故事中女主角的社經移動、在原生關係與社會關係中的 掙扎。她們的經驗揭露了模範弱勢論述（the model minority thesis）的虛假與種 族主義本質，也顯示嚴歌苓本身對依附白人主流者的質疑。同時，本章亦討論了 華裔移民女性的垂直向上移動將會帶來華裔美國社群中性別階級的翻轉。 第四章總結本文，除提出更多異質經驗的可能性，並藉此將華裔美國移動論述視 作持續開放的文化論述。 Key Words: mobility, Chinese immigrant, Nieh Hualing, Yan Geling, Mulberry and Peach, No Exit Café, “Siao Yu,” “The Virgin Amanda,” Sau-ling C. Wong Abstract This thesis tries to explore the themes of women’s mobility in dislocation in the context of Chinese American immigrant literature and to discuss the ways in which they set up subjectivities from their mobility experiences. Adapting from Sau-ling C. Wong’s theory of mobility discourse, which considers the issue of mobility both horizontally (geographically) and vertically (socio-economically), I argue that to women mobility is a way of resisting male domination and of constructing subjectivity. On one hand, in Nieh Hualing’s Mulberry and Peach, the female protagonist creates alternative consciousness of space as a means to empower herself to fight against androcentric domination and constructs a new subjectivity in the new world. On the other hand, the heroines in Yan Geling’s No Exit Café, “The Virgin Amanda” and “Siao Yu” are more concerned about the problem of survival. They show ambivalent feelings toward vertical mobility and resist the representations of the mainstream by a strong subjectivity. This thesis may help to revitalize Chinese American mobility discourse by disclosing the specific experiences of Chinese immigrant women. Chapter 1 firstly discusses women’s marginalized status in Chinese American mobility discourses. I introduce my theorization of the construction of female subject in a mobile condition, which is mainly based on Wong’s two-directional mobility. Also, I borrow Trin T. Minh-ha’s feminist perspective to view Chinese immigrant women’s subjectivity and resistance in a non-filiation/affiliation status. Chapter 2 demonstrates my appropriation of Sau-ling C. Wong’s viewpoints about mobility as “rival cultural discourse” against dominant values. By this I argue that Mulberry/Peach’s horizontal mobility can be regarded as tactics intending to transgress limitations of domination. The results show that mobility empowers Mulberry/Peach by creating new spatial discourses against Chinese patriarchism or American nationalism and further generates strong subjectivity. Chapter 3 focuses on the heroines’ socioeconomic mobility and their struggles between the filiative or the affiliative relations. I argue that their experiences unmask the hypocrisy of the white’s model minority thesis and its racism and reveal Yan’s suspicion to those who attach to the white dominant. Lastly, I discuss how Chinese immigrant women’s vertical movement may result in the reversal of gender hierarchy in Chinese American community. Chapter 4 concludes the thesis with a view of regarding the Chinese American mobility discourses as an open one which may include more and more heterogeneous experiences. Acknowledgements This thesis cannot be completed without Professor Pin-chia Feng’s (馮品佳教授) guidance and support. As my advisor, she showed great patience and understanding helping me to overcome the challenges—of life or of study. I would like to express my deepest appreciation to her. Also, I want to thank Professor Ying-Hsiung Chou (周英雄教授) and Professor Te-hsing Shan (單德興教授), who spent time sharing their insights with me and providing me valuable viewpoints. Their suggestions helped me to improve my thesis a lot. Thanks to my friends who encouraged me to go through the moody days in writing. With love, to my families. They always believe me and back me up. Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………...Ⅰ Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………….Ⅱ Contents……………………………………………………………………………...Ⅲ Chapter 1 Introduction…………………………………………………1 Chapter 2 Mulberry and Peach……………………………………….26 Chapter 3 No Exit Café, “Siao Yu” and “The Virgin Amanda”………50 Chapter 4 Chinese American Mobility Discourse —Always on the Road……………………………………..73 Appendix…………………………………………………………………………….80 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………82 Lin 1 Chapter 1 Introduction As an old Chinese proverb “men dominate the outside world and women, the domestic field” shows, the mobility practices of Chinese people have been determined by a gender hierarchy. In other words, to traditional Chinese women mobility is almost out of reach. Those who first came to the United States were at the dictate of the proverb. Out of poverty, the male Cantonese left their wives behind with a promise of coming back and crossed the ocean to America for better opportunities. Ever since then, the discourse of Chinese American mobility has long been circumscribed by the mainstream white. While exploring a new frontier implies heroism and masculinity for the white, the “promised” land to Chinese people has been overshadowed by the Chinese Exclusion Law (1882-1943) which banned the Chinese immigrating into America. Only a small number of women, including prostitutes and a few paper daughters, entered but contributed very little to forming Chinese American families since the U.S. government was trying to uproot the Chinese American population. This resulted in a bachelor society in Chinese American community for a long period of time.1 The Second World War had a profound impact on Chinese immigrants and their 1 My research of the history of Chinese immigration into the United States is based on Sucheng Chan’s Asian Americans: An Interpretive History. Lin 2 descendants. In Sucheng Chan’s study, the war brought four positive changes, including the improvement of the Chinese images, the removal of some racial barriers of the labor market, sizable Chinese members’ enlistment in the armed forces, and the gradual lift of the immigration exclusion.2 To Chinese women, particularly, the amended War Brides Act in 1947 admitted them to be the main group entering America under the amendment. Most of them married Chinese American men and turned the bachelor world into that of normalcy. And some of them threw themselves into the labor force and initiated different living experiences from that of their predecessors. The door of the States then opened to the political refugees after the Communist China was established in 1949. The members of this group were mostly well-educated intellectuals who would eventually constitute the base of Chinese American middle class. Yet, during the Cold War, each Chinese immigrant was under the country’s anticommunist surveillance, which moved the Chinese American groups into silence and the nightmare of investigation, such as the case of Yan Geling.3 In general, however, after the period of the legal prohibition of Chinese immigration comes the inclusion age. According to Chan’s research, throughout the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, changes in U.S. immigration legislation had greatly increased the 2 Chan, “Changing Fortunes, 1941 to 1965.” Asian Americans: An Interpretive History. 121-42. 3 Yan’s marriage with her husband, a white diplomat, was under investigation because she is from a communist country. Her husband then decided to resign from the job. He did not go back to his diplomatic career until 2004. Lin 3 immigration quotas for Chinese. The abolishment of the Immigration Law especially brings in a great number of Chinese immigrants, although they have to gain the permission from the immigration bureau before moving in.4 This is also an age in which Asian Americans are called “legal aliens” by David Leiwei Li, because, not like the exclusion period, “the regulatory function of the law in defining citizens and aliens is increasingly subsumed by mass media and public education” (Li 6). Sharing this racist mind, the model minority thesis has emerged in the mid-1960. According to Chan, the thesis tended to paint rosy pictures of Chinese/Japanese Americans as “models” while in fact it served a critical political purpose at the height of the Civil Rights movement: Proponents of the thesis were in fact telling Black and Chicano activists that they should follow the example set by Asian Americans who work hard to pull themselves up by the bootstraps instead of using militant protests to obtain their rights. (167) Such
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